EURO 2008 POLL

[The understudy]

Thanks JD!!!

[chelsea]

Good to see my pick of Croatia still going strong, shame about the Germans

[Guess]

Guess wrote:

Anyway back on track. I am still going with Spain. Villa, Torres, Fabrigas awesome.

So you're dropping Italy like a lead balloon after just 1 game.

SJ

No I went for Spain in the first place. Nobody has voted for Italy.

I did defend Italy against the unfounded derogatory comments by Wanderlust (the sort you expect from a West Ham supporter). A team can not turn from World Champions to bottom eight in Europe in two years with the same (almost) squad even if their ages do average over 31 years.

I will stand by the my defence even after Italy's draw yesterday. In both matches Italy were far from poor. Holland were indeed superior and I reckon them to be the second or third best team in the competition with Spain & Portugal being the other two.

As for Italy vs France, it has turned into an early knockout stage for them except that if they draw there is no exrta time or pernalties just dissapointment for both as Romania go through.

This dicussion is acedemic only IMHO. The winner of France v Italy gets second spot if Romaina fail to beat Holland (almost a certainty). The winner then faces Spain and then both countries' ageing defenders will have a hell of a problem combating the likes of Torres, Fabregas, Xavi & Villa. (The only niggle I have here is that somehow Spain were beaten by both Sweden and Northern Ireland in the early stages of the qualification 2 years ago).

On the other side of the group the favorites Germany have been humbled by the outstanding Croatia. Chelsea's early prediction may yet to be proven correct.

My gut feeling now is for an all Iberian Final.

[Super Joe]

Hi Guess,

It is your signature thing that made me think you were going for Italy or Spain, "I T A L I A or maybe E S P A N A"

I've gone for Portugal but Holland are looking v. strong.
Italy vs France will be good now, both on same goals for and against. If they draw they both might well go out!!

Cheers

[redzonerocker]

my vote was for spain with holland as the outsiders, both going well

italy & france were overated & even though they were the two finalists in the world cup, they were far from the best two teams. thats just the way things go in cup competitions.
they have both certainly been put to the sword by holland & italy were fortunate to come out with a draw yesterday!!
the final 2 games in the group could quite possibly be 2 draws & send the 2 w/c finalists home earlier than expected

[bajm]

There is another possibility.
Holland may send both Italy and France home to avoid meeting one of them again, later in the tournament.
If they let Romania win the next match they still will remain first in group C.
Van Basten denies this tactic of course, but I am sure we will see his team B play against Romania.

[Super Joe]

There is another possibility.
Holland may send both Italy and France home to avoid meeting one of them again, later in the tournament.
If they let Romania win the next match they still will remain first in group C.

If I've got my maths rights, if Italy and France draw Holland can still put them both out by only beating Romania by two goals.
We're all little stato's at heart aren't we

SJ

[Bamboo Grove]

Hopefully it will be either v Persie or Fabregas who will be crowned as achamp.

[redzonerocker]

whatever the stats & permutations, if france & italy are eliminated, it will be down to their own poor performances & not the tactics of holland in their final game

[redzonerocker]

here's a puzzler

boulahrouz wasn't deemed good enough to make the final dutch squad of 23 players & was only called up as a replacement for babel.
he's not a direct positional replacement yet he's started both games
i have to add, he has played well in both games still baffling though

[chelsea]

Good to see my pick team Croatia doing very well at present. Good to see them get to the next round and hopefully in the Semi Finals.

Has been a strange 1st round of matches with a lot more goals scored than is normal in the initial stages of competition.
Have not seen a great deal of the games as their is not much TV coverage here in Australia and what is on starts at 2.30am in the morning.

Must admit have been very suprised by Holland's performance thay have played a great deal better than I would have imagined, and also Turkey after a shaky start have come good again and qualified for the next round.
So far so good for Spain as well, but remains to be seen how they cope in the sudden death games.

Think that Scolari made a big mistake to change the winning team mentality if his side. I know that they had already qualified, but personally think that it would be better to keep winning games than loosing.

I know that people will say he was looking after the star players of his team, but to me loosing games can have a bad effect on a teams confidence.

Will be interesting to see how Germany and Italy go in their last game could end up with both of them not qualifying.

[redzonerocker]

for the two that voted for czech republic

thanks to cech's howler they are on the way to the airport today

wasn't keen on watching with none of the home nations there but i have to admit i've quite enjoyed the tournament so far.
some pretty open attacking football for a change.

the officials have come in for some stick (no surprise there!) but i think generally the refs have been good. the linesmen have made a few awful offside decisions but that just adds to the entertainment

[The understudy]

Hi there Y'all

Wow the Game between Turkey and czech Republic was so exciting It's beyond believe. with the Czechs allready 2:0 ahead most of the Game it seems certain that they will move into the second round. But Then a terrible mistake by Peter Czech in the ending Min. of the second half and then Turkey strikes back with two Goals under 4 Min. 3 :2
Turkiye Turkiye Turkiye!!! My secret favorite believed to be dead still lived another day!!!

Your's The understudy!!!!

[Guess]

I hate to say this but i think Italy will not make it out of the group stage

Now what do you think?

[caller]

It was rubbish though, but I suppose they can only get better?

I think its wide open and I'm still not convinced about the Dutch?

I think a Chelsea player will win it!